This known tapping device comprises a refrigerator having therein a number of containers for beverage. Placed on the refrigerator is a hollow tapping rod, through which extends a tapping line. This tapping line is coupled with the back of a conventional tapping cock mounted on the tapping rod, so that beverage can be forced from the container to the tapping cock, for instance under the influence of CO2 gas introduced into the container. The hollow tapping rod is in open communication with the inner space of the refrigerator, so that in principle relatively cold air can flow from the refrigerator into the tapping rod and can envelop the tapping line therein. During use, this leads to cooling of the tapping line and beverage flowing therethrough.
This known tapping device has as a disadvantage that the air in the tapping rod will substantially not move. In fact, the cooled air will be warmed in the tapping rod and, as a result, be forced further upwards in the tapping rod, since the warmer air is relatively light with respect to the cold air present in the refrigerator. In the tapping rod, adjacent the tapping cock, a relatively small opening is provided, through which a part of the air can escape. This improves the air movement in the tapping rod, but entails the drawback that in the surroundings of the tapping cock an undesired, relatively cold air stream will arise, precisely in the direction of the tapping cock and the person operating this tapping cock, while moreover relatively much energy will be lost, since the escaped, relatively cool air in the refrigerator will be replaced by relatively warm air drawn in from the surroundings, which will have to be cooled from, for instance, room temperature to a temperature of, for instance, about 4 to 6 degrees Celsius.
The object of the invention is to provide a tapping device of the kind described in the preamble, wherein the disadvantages mentioned are avoided, while maintaining the advantages thereof. To that end, a tapping device according to the invention is characterized by the features set forth herein.